ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas kicked off Penn State’s Intercollegiate Athletics Conference, hosted by the Penn State Center for the Study of Sports in Society, at the State Theatre Thursday night.

Bilas, affectionally nicknamed “The Bilastrator,” is known for his passionate belief of collegiate athletes receiving compensation and for his fearless criticism of the NCAA’s standards and practices, and is also known for his morning ritual of tweeting Young Jeezy lyrics along with the phrase “I gotta go to work.”

On Wednesday, Bilas joined North Carolina Rep. Mark Walker on Capitol Hill to discuss a bill that would allow college athletes to profit off their names, images, or likenesses.

Bilas was joined onstage by Curley Center for Sports Journalism Director John Affleck for an hourlong discussion, touching heavily on the compensation of collegiate athletes and California’s Fair Pay to Play Act, which is the inspiration for the bill Bilas helped present on Capitol Hill Wednesday.

The discussion kicked off with Affleck asking Bilas to detail his official stance on collegiate athlete compensation.

“I do not believe college sports are amateur,” said Bilas, who then cited the fact that college sports is now a multi-billion dollar industry, something actual amateur sports leagues cannot say.

“I don’t believe in telling athletes that this multi-billion dollar business relies on athletes staying out of the budget,” Bilas said.

Bilas then questioned the process of the NCAA forcing Olympic swimmer Katie Ledecky to quit her Stanford swim team in order to be compensated as a gold medal-winning Olympic athlete.

Affleck then threw a few common anti-“pay the players” arguments out to Bilas, who expertly and swiftly debunked them.

The first argument Bilas debunked is the classic “there just isn’t enough money” excuse. The analyst then cited the many millions of dollars college teams pour into their over-the-top facilities and arenas.

“They’re putting so much money into everything but the players simply because they can’t,” Bilas said. “They don’t draw the [expenditure line] at facilities. They don’t draw the line anywhere, except the athletes.”

Next, Bilas debunked the idea that if “glamour sports” start paying players, “lesser” sports would end up having their funding cut and eventually phased out.

“That’s been threatened for decades, but now we have more sports than ever,” said Bilas, citing that even though more money is being thrown into “glamour sports” now more than ever, less followed collegiate sports are still thriving.

“The disparity is too wide to make the same arguments [about compensation] people tried to make in the 70s and 80s,” Bilas said.

Bilas then switched his focus to the California Fair Pay to Play Act, stating the bill’s intention was to “light a fire under the NCAA to do this themselves because I don’t think they would absent this law.”

“It is not that difficult, it an issue of control, and the NCAA and other institutions don’t want to give up that control,” said Bilas, who then compared the NCAA’s treatment of their athletes to “cartel behavior.”

“It was built up into a billion-dollar industry intentionally and knowingly, and now it’s time [to pay the players,]” Bilas said.

Bilas then downplayed the idea of the Fair Pay to Play act only affecting star players, because in the social media age, “these players have tremendous value in the market place,” Bilas said. “It goes far beyond just the quarterback.”

Bilas ended the Fair Pay to Play discussion with hope, citing the fact that the NCAA is losing leverage in the courtroom.

“I’m not saying they’re gonna lose every case, but they’re not winning them either,” Bilas said. “They’re actually starting to lose these things.”

The night ended with a short Q&A session with the crowd and a lightning round from Affleck, who asked Bilas to give his thoughts on the Penn State men’s basketball team’s upcoming season.

“Oddly enough, I think Penn State is gonna be pretty good,” said Bilas, who went to the Nittany Lions’ practice earlier in the day. He also spoke highly of Lamar Stevens as a shooter and as a leader.